Photo giveaway with a side of delicious-ness

I thought they came out great! I ordered three 8 x 10’s of the sepia picture with a matte finish for our parents. Good thing I already have the picture frames. These are going to be thoughtful gifts for such little cost. I paid $1.99 each for the 8 x 10 frames at goodwill (they’re brand new!!) and around$8 for three 8 x 10 prints. That’s three gifts for around $15 and not to mention how personable they are. I’ll have to share the finished product in the frame and all once we receive the prints in the mail. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Leah was generous enough to edit a picture of my dog Nikki as well. For all of you that are not familiar with the story of my dog Nikki, let me share. I entered to win this photo giveaway by telling the story of my favorite holiday gift…

My favorite holiday gift had to be when I got my dog (now 14 years old) Nikki. I was 9 years old and my mother surprised me with a trip to Disney World for my 9th birthday in November. It was a special holiday Disney celebration with fake snow, hot chocolate and sledding (I was born and raised in FL so that experience was freaking awesome!).While we were in Orlando, the dog we had at the time was killed when we let a family friend watch over him. I was crushed and so was my mom. There was only a few weeks left before Christmas and my mom knew I was missing my best friend. Early Christmas morning, I was awakened by the sound of whimpering. My mom insisted I just go back to sleep, but I knew something was there. So at 2 o’clock in the morning, my mom said we can go check it out. The whimpering was coming from the garage and as the garage door opened, there was a fuzzy little white puppy jumping in a box begging to be played with. I was ecstatic! Needless to say, I couldn’t go back to sleep and I kept thanking Santa Clause for the best gift ever. That little white fuzzy puppy is now an old tired dog, but she is still one of my best friends and always remembers who I am when I come home after being away for so long. This is also one of many things I am looking forward to when going home this holiday season!

Allow me to introduce my dog Nikki…

Nikki - December 2010 (14 years old)

Can’t wait to see her on Friday! Thanks again Heather and Leah for all of your talent and kindness!

As for eats, I’ve been keeping it simple… real simple. We’re trying to eat up all of the perishable food we have before heading down to Florida, so the following food items are a result of our efforts.

I had to compromise these so I could mix the perishable food into a dish that the hubby could get down on.

I decided on my version of baked ziti. Jon is a very picky eater and if it’s good for you, he doesn’t want it. Who would have thought I would be married to my complete opposite? I’m just glad I could finally make an unhealthy dish a little healthier, and it would be something he would eat. I threw grass-fed beef on the skillet while the pasta was being boiled and used up the rest of the organic pasta sauce we had in the fridge. After the three were done cooking, I mixed them all together and poured into a baking dish.

I added some shredded Trader Joe's mexican cheese to the dish and baked at 400 F for 15 minutes.

This was good but would be better with the right kind of cheese. Mozzarella, parmesan or romano would have been perfect.